Popular Culture

This topic to day came up with a guy that I was talking about pop culture on a Dating site that I'm on. He said that he didn't have anything to do with pop culture. He then told me that media is communication. I really don't think that he knew anything about popular culture, media, or communication all together. So it got me to thinking that not everyone knows what popular culture is. So, I wanted to research it and post what I found out about it.

Fist off lets start by talking about the definition of Popular culture. I took it from one of my favorite sites Dictionary.com and this is what it said:

Popular Culture: contemporary lifestyle and items that are well known and generally accepted, cultural patterns that are widespread within a population; also called pop culture.

With that being said I think almost everything that we do in today's life can be considered popular culture. Things like on-line dating is something can be considered pop culture because it is widely accepted by the population.

So, this guy didn't really think about what he said. I understand that sometimes we don't know what we are saying. I think that taking the time to research what your talking about before you can say it will save you a lot of pain in the end.

Popular Culture originated with some different meaning then It did today. Here is the information I found on Wikipedia

The term "popular culture" itself is of 19th century coinage, in original usage referring to the education and "culturedness" of the lower classes, as was delivered in an address at the Birmingham Town Hall, England.[11] The term began to assume the meaning of a culture of the lower classes separate from and opposed to "true education" towards the end of the century,[12] a usage that became established by the interbellum period.[13] The current meaning of the term, culture for mass consumption, especially originating in the United States, is established by the end of World War II.[14] The abbreviated form "pop culture" dates to the 1960s.[15]

To know the background of some words might help us to understand what it really means. There is just so much to a word that we just don't know about anymore. Its something that we need to learn somewhere in life.

I think that we as a society are losing the knowledge that we use to have. I don't know if its because there is so much more to know or if we are just becoming more and more lazy. I think that we stopped caring about education and started caring about other things in life.

I am glad that I talked to this guy about this. I have learned a lot about pop culture and have grown for this experience.

What do you think in your life is pop culture? Do you like it or hate pop culture?